2026 Competition Entry:
Jane Delaney by Suzanne Chawner
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Lyrics
Jane Delaney
When Jane was only seventeen she felt so ill at ease
Her mother and her father were impossible to please
She wanted to be free of them and start to live her life
When a handsome man her mother liked asked Jane to be his wife.
Jane said to her mother, “I don’t want marriage yet!”
Her mother told her, “Grab the chance, he’s the best that you can get!”
So she married John Delaney and on their honeymoon
She watched him getting drunk each night in the Grand Hotel saloon.
(Chorus)
Oh Jane Delaney, you’re just like Cinderella waiting,
But how long can you wait for your big chance
Oh Jane Delaney, you feel your life is so frustrating
I wish you could get up and join the dance.
She lived with him for many years, nursing him each day
Finding bottles he had hid and throwing them away
She dreamed of being somewhere else, in someone else’s shoes
But the lesson that she’d learned so well was in life you’re bound to lose.
(Repeat chorus)
One day she started crying, her life had been so sad
But when she’d done her crying time, felt the lack in what she’d had,
Said “I’m going to be free of you now, and start to live my life
I know there’s something more for me than being an old boozer’s wife”.
(Last Chorus)
Oh Jane Delaney, no more Cinderella waiting
Now you know you’ve got to take a chance
Oh Jane Delaney, you felt your life was so frustrating
But now you’re getting up to join the dance
Yes, now you’re getting up to join the dance.
When Jane was only seventeen she felt so ill at ease
Her mother and her father were impossible to please
She wanted to be free of them and start to live her life
When a handsome man her mother liked asked Jane to be his wife.
Jane said to her mother, “I don’t want marriage yet!”
Her mother told her, “Grab the chance, he’s the best that you can get!”
So she married John Delaney and on their honeymoon
She watched him getting drunk each night in the Grand Hotel saloon.
(Chorus)
Oh Jane Delaney, you’re just like Cinderella waiting,
But how long can you wait for your big chance
Oh Jane Delaney, you feel your life is so frustrating
I wish you could get up and join the dance.
She lived with him for many years, nursing him each day
Finding bottles he had hid and throwing them away
She dreamed of being somewhere else, in someone else’s shoes
But the lesson that she’d learned so well was in life you’re bound to lose.
(Repeat chorus)
One day she started crying, her life had been so sad
But when she’d done her crying time, felt the lack in what she’d had,
Said “I’m going to be free of you now, and start to live my life
I know there’s something more for me than being an old boozer’s wife”.
(Last Chorus)
Oh Jane Delaney, no more Cinderella waiting
Now you know you’ve got to take a chance
Oh Jane Delaney, you felt your life was so frustrating
But now you’re getting up to join the dance
Yes, now you’re getting up to join the dance.
Author
Bio
When I was a child, I wrote poetry that was published in my school magazine. Later, when I was 16, I began writing songs in my Camden bedsit. Young people in the shared house began knocking on my door, saying they liked the songs.
In my twenties, I visited Los Angeles and I took a songwriting class with Buddy Kaye (“A you’re Adorable, B you’re so Beautiful”). He liked one of my songs so much he took it to Chrysalis Music in London. Unfortunately, being a hot-headed young artist, I didn’t want to change one line of my lyrics and I walked away.
Next, I cut my performing teeth playing guitar and singing in the bars and beisls of Vienna, where I lived for a year. Returning to England, I began playing in folk and acoustic clubs and festivals, where my personal songs often touched a chord and I got some good reviews of my first cassette in Folk Roots magazine, City Limits and Time Out. One of the songs on this cassette was Jane Delaney. I have not re-recorded it since, but want to do so now.
Enjoying working on my craft, I went on a songwriting retreat with Willy Russell, who liked my writing so much he mentored me following the course and paid for some demo tapes of my songs. He particularly admired my song “On Primrose Hill”.
Eventually, I met a female record company executive (in the toilets!) at a music conference, and she invited me to send a demo. Her Irish label Round Tower Music subsequently released a CD of my songs in 1995, entitled “On Primrose Hill”. The CD received positive reviews in Mojo, Folk Roots and other magazines as well as a personal note from Caroline Sullivan of the Guardian saying how much she liked the album. Andrew Vaughan of City Limits wrote “She has a rare ability to communicate” and “she’s got a hot line to the gods of the songwriters.”
Giving birth to an autistic child two years later in 1997, my attention was drawn away from my songwriting to give my full attention to my beautiful and extraordinary child.
Newly retired from my late career as a school counsellor and with my child fully grown up, I have renewed energy and am enjoying concentrating on my songwriting and performing again. I am ambitious for my songs to gain a wider audience. It’s never too late!
In my twenties, I visited Los Angeles and I took a songwriting class with Buddy Kaye (“A you’re Adorable, B you’re so Beautiful”). He liked one of my songs so much he took it to Chrysalis Music in London. Unfortunately, being a hot-headed young artist, I didn’t want to change one line of my lyrics and I walked away.
Next, I cut my performing teeth playing guitar and singing in the bars and beisls of Vienna, where I lived for a year. Returning to England, I began playing in folk and acoustic clubs and festivals, where my personal songs often touched a chord and I got some good reviews of my first cassette in Folk Roots magazine, City Limits and Time Out. One of the songs on this cassette was Jane Delaney. I have not re-recorded it since, but want to do so now.
Enjoying working on my craft, I went on a songwriting retreat with Willy Russell, who liked my writing so much he mentored me following the course and paid for some demo tapes of my songs. He particularly admired my song “On Primrose Hill”.
Eventually, I met a female record company executive (in the toilets!) at a music conference, and she invited me to send a demo. Her Irish label Round Tower Music subsequently released a CD of my songs in 1995, entitled “On Primrose Hill”. The CD received positive reviews in Mojo, Folk Roots and other magazines as well as a personal note from Caroline Sullivan of the Guardian saying how much she liked the album. Andrew Vaughan of City Limits wrote “She has a rare ability to communicate” and “she’s got a hot line to the gods of the songwriters.”
Giving birth to an autistic child two years later in 1997, my attention was drawn away from my songwriting to give my full attention to my beautiful and extraordinary child.
Newly retired from my late career as a school counsellor and with my child fully grown up, I have renewed energy and am enjoying concentrating on my songwriting and performing again. I am ambitious for my songs to gain a wider audience. It’s never too late!
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